IMHO dukkha as 'stress' seems to be a good. Childbirth is stressful , and so are emotional conflicts.

"Life is a struggle. Life will throw curveballs at you, it will humble you, it will attempt to break you down. And just when you think things are starting to look up, life will smack you back down with ruthless indifference..."

I had the conflict of relationships in mind, but internal conflict works for me too. I don't know if all conflict is dukkha, but all conflict involves dukkha, and perhaps the reverse--all dukkha involves conflict. As a mediator, and in my own life, when we are in conflict, and it gets resolved peacefully and mutually, the transformative power of that process necessarily involves awareness of the cessation of the conflict. It seems like the same thing as attending to cessation to me, but on an interpersonal rather than introspective level.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (a sub-field of conflict resolution) is alternative because it's alternative to traditional adversarial law. There's still an element of adversariality, but it's managed differently--I would say more skillfully. Conflict is pervasive, like dukkha, and when we approach it adversarially, we get unskillful results. But conflict, like dukkha, is to be understood, not avoided. Most conflict escalates because appropriate attention is not present when it spirals out.

I do not generally agree with Marx about conflict. I'm glad he got the ball rolling, but we've come a long way from his influence.D

David N. Snyder wrote:Is all dukkha conflict? For example, is child birth a conflict? Many emotional pains could be called conflict, but there are other pains and sufferings that don't appear to have conflict.

I don't know if all conflict is dukkha, but all conflict involves dukkha, and perhaps the reverse--all dukkha involves conflict.

Hello Daniel

I am interested in these investigations about suffering. I believe all suffering is conflict. I have experienced physical pain before and found physical pain is only suffering if I do not accept it. If I have resistance to it.

I agree that dukkha is conflict. Child birth is conflict when a woman has resistance & fear to the pain & hardship of child birth.

What I've been doing is when I read the word dukkha or its English variants, and when I read the word nirodha or it English variants, I substitute "conflict" for "dukkha" and "resolution" for "nirodha". Sometimes it feels right, other times, not. Try it, e.g., with the Buddha's "first sermon" (Turning The Wheel of Dhamma).

My hunch is that dukkha as conflict/conflict as dukkha is more salient when the stress/suffering is part of a relationship with another person. In other words, the kind of dukkha we experience in relationships (as opposed to internal conflict) is best understood as conflict.

If you look at the "twelfth link" of dependent origination, for example, you get a flavor of the different manifestations of dukkha, and it is by no means exhaustive. And in general, dependent origination explicates the conflictual aspects of dukkha.D

danieLion wrote:If you look at the "twelfth link" of dependent origination, for example, you get a flavor of the different manifestations of dukkha, and it is by no means exhaustive. And in general, dependent origination explicates the conflictual aspects of dukkha.

Hello Daniel

I enter 'dependent origination' in Google Search and find the easy to understand explanation in the 3rd of the list. It is of Christina Feldman, she say:

Birth is followed by death in which there is the sense of loss, change, the passing away of that state of experience. "I used to be happy;" "I used to be successful;" "I was content in the last moment," and so on. The passing away of that state of experience, the feeling of being deprived or separated from the identity, "I used to be…" is the moment of death. In that moment of death, we sense a loss of good meditation experience, the good emotional experience. We say it’s gone. And associated with that sense is the pain and the grief, the despair of our loss.

chownah wrote:I think if one is not attached to conflict then one does not experience dukkha thereby.I think if one is attached to resolution then one does expereince dukkha thereby.chownah

Hi chownah,Why separate dukkha from conflict experientially? Is not the experience of conflict stressful? Is not the experience of the resolution of conflict liberating?

By "attachment" do you mean upadana?

D

danieLion,Just as a hint of a reply.....just the tip of the iceburg of a reply is that conflict is fun!!!!....after all that is why you responded to my post!!!!.....I guess.....but I don't know for sure.....maybe I'm wrong.....that's why people enjoy sports!!!!....I guess.....but I don't know for sure....that's why people like to get married!!!....I guess....but I don't know for sure.....that's why Steve Job's enjoyed being the CEO of Apple....I guess....but I don't know for sure.....chownahP.S. Upadana? No speeka da Pali.chownahP.P.S. Is there any connection between Dukkha and attachment? (Yes, this is a pun but it is also a serious question.)chownah